“On August 15th, at noon in broad daylight when everybody was eating lunch, I hit the road. Yes I was afraid. Am I gonna live or die? And when I stepped into the minefield and I seen it with my own eyes, I started sweating. I crossed over, looking for my new life.”

James Joseph Dresnok (Comrade Joe) defected from the U.S. Army in 1963 to a better life in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK – North Korea), he has lived there for 43 years. Dresnok has stated that he intends to spend the rest of his life in North Korea, and that no amount of money could entice him back to the West.

In this documentary, “Crossing the Line”, (here in 9 parts) he tells the story of his fascinating life.

The following documentary film, “Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement – Quest for a Homeland”, examines the beginnings of the modern Chicano Liberation Movement. For a revolutionary analysis of the Chicano struggle for national self-determination and full equality, see the 1979 article “The Struggle for Chicano Liberation” by the U.S. League for Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist), and the important 2003 interview with Brown Berets co-founder, Carlos Montes, “Young Chicano Revolutionaries” conducted by Fight Back! News, the newspaper of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization:

The following documentary film (in six parts) explores the consequences of the collapse of the Soviet Union for the Russian people. Whatever problems existed for Socialism in the Soviet Union, even during the period of revisionist leadership from 1956 to 1991, people were clearly better off. As Keeran and Kenny put it in their book Socialism Betrayed:

A brief review of the Soviet Union’s accomplishments underscores what was lost. The Soviet Union not only eliminated the exploiting classes of the old order, but ended inflation, unemployment, racial and national discrimination, grinding poverty, and glaring inequalities of wealth, income, education, and opportunity. In fifty years, the country went from an industral production that was only 12 percent of that in the United States to industrial production that was 80 percent and an agricultural output 85 percent of the U.S. Though Soviet per capita consumption remained lower than in the U.S., no society had ever increased living standards and consumption so rapidly in such a short period of time for all its people. Employment was guaranteed. Free education was available for all, from kindergarten through secondary schools (general, technical and vocational), universities, and after-work schools. Besides free tuition, post-secondary students recieved living stipends. Free health care existed for all, with about twice as many doctors per person as in the United States. Workers who were injured or ill had job guarantees and sick pay. In the mid-1970s, workers averaged 21.2 working days of vacation (a month’s vaction), and sanitariums, resorts, and childrens camps were either free or subsidized. Trade unions had the power to veto firings and recall managers. The state regulated all prices and subsidized the cost of basic food and housing. Rents constituted only 2-3 percent of the family budget; water and utilities only 4-5 percent… State subsidies kept the price of books, periodicals and cultural events at a minimum.